The USATF national championships for junior, senior, and masters age groups will be held this Saturday in St. Louis, Missouri. Colorado-based fans of cross country will recognize the names of Bailey Roth, Brandon Williams, and Rowan Bolduc among the junior men's entries. Williams and Bolduc are both now collegiate runners but still come under the junior men's age cutoff. Williams currently runs at the University of Missouri and Bolduc at Colorado Christian University. The junior men compete at a distance of 8K.
Moving up to the open men's 12K, Colorado-connected entries include Ian Burrell, Loren Ahonen, Brandon Birdsong, Brian Dumm, Joseph Manilafasha, Richard Medina, Luke Smith, Matt Tebo, Andy Wacker, Matt Williams, and perhaps one or two more that I've overlooked in a pass through the results. Generally speaking, however, there's a pretty good collection of astute readers out there who help me pick up what I've missed.
Bailey Roth will be among those stepping to the line in St. Louis's Forest Park for the junior men's USA Cross Country Championships race on Saturday. Colorado Track XC file photo.
It doesn't seem like cross country season, but the international cross country season doesn't operate on the same calendar as Colorado high school cross country does. So, it's not altogether surprising that there's still cross country taking place.